TO INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS, INSTITUTIONS, WOMEN ORGANISATIONS AND PRESS

The denial and destruction policies, human rights violations, arrests, evacuation of villages and unidentified murders applied on civilian Kurdish people by the Turkish State as a consequence of the escalation of the conflictual atmosphere between PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) and state forces in the early of 90s have caused deep wounds in society. Upon the call of Kurdish People’s Leader Mr. Abdullah Öcalan in Newroz, on 21st March 2013, the society in Turkey has breathed easy and set great hopes on democratic solution and peace-building. However, with the process started with the rejection of the negotiations just after the general elections in Turkey on 7th June 2015; the insist on isolation implemented on Mr. Abdullah Öcalan, bombing attacks, political and military operations, forest burnings, sexual violence against women and massacres against civil people are enhanced by the State violently.

What happens in Silopi district of Şırnak province in recent days is an obvious indicator of this. The block off Turkish government on the passage of the bodies of YPG and YPJ guerrillas, who lost their lives in the struggle against DAİŞ/ ISIS, from the Habur Border Gate (Turkey-Iraq Border Gate) and not delivering the bodies to families during 13 days have been seen by people as an attack to all the values of the society. This attitude which can’t be accepted by any international law or human dignity has caused a social indignation.

Today, in Silopi, the state implements a wide violence and destruction policy against people. It is two weeks that the gunshots haven’t stopped in Silopi, bombs are thrown from air and land, and there is an ongoing massacre against people in local. Neither information nor news is obtained from 4 neighbourhoods. According to the official data 4 people lost their lives and 28 people were taken into custody. Because the wounded people who go to hospitals are taken into custody by the state forces, the wounded cannot go to hospitals; and therefore the real number of them cannot be determined. According to the statement of a witness, a wounded person had been executed in the hospital. People are not allowed to go out because of the threats of special operation teams, gendarme and police.

The inhuman implementations, which put into effect as a consequence of the “special security” law of the Turkish State, are experienced in other cities of Kurdistan, too. Many residential areas are declared as the “special security zone” by the state and security forces.

As KJA, we urgently call all the international human rights organisations, institutions, monitoring and observation missions and international press to go and make onsite observation and determination of these massacres and right violations notably in Silopi and other areas of the region.